


Between The Cobwebs

by shivadyne



Series: Halloweentown AU [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Kingdom Hearts, Gen, Halloweentown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 22:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5107244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shivadyne/pseuds/shivadyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is that so?” the man asked, looking pretty irritated even as he spoke smoothly and without any emotion lingering beneath his words. He finally laid his eyes on Cloud and they widened marginally. He said, “You are a… ghost.”</p><p>“Yeeees?” Cloud replied, confused. “We’re pretty common. How long have you been sleeping for?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between The Cobwebs

**Author's Note:**

> this ended up being a lot less vincent/cloud than i expected so i'm tagging it as gen and implied. i might do something with this universe later, though. i'm rating it teen and up because... death and stuff.
> 
> it's a little early, but happy halloween!

Cloud’s completely and totally _bored_. Tifa hasn’t come by the graveyard in weeks, always a little too busy chasing around some spiky-haired kid and keeping him out of trouble. He’d talk to Aeris and Zack, but they were probably up on the spiral hill, talking quietly under the light of the full moon. He didn’t want to intrude on their private moments, growing farther and fewer as the days to Halloween approached.

Debating over what to do, he eventually stood with a sigh and began to wander. Halloweentown’s graveyard was a wide, open area that had mostly been unexplored by the semi-new ghost and he had yet to learn it as well as he knew the sword strapped to his back, Ultima Weapon being a comforting weight to carry even in death.

He tuned back into his surroundings to see a small dog with a glowing, bright red nose floating at his feet. Cloud leaned down with a small upturn of the lips, petting the dog and scratching behind his ears. Zero stared up at him for a few moments, gave a short bark of acknowledgement, and then ran off to find his master.

He hummed thoughtfully, walking through a path with graves on either side of him. Cloud was wedged between them, only able to flit through the tiny gap thanks to his incomplete form. It still tingled whenever his body went through objects and he could never make himself walk straight through a wall, hating the wave of nausea that he always felt afterwards. 

His eyes landed upon the Shinra Mansion and though curiosity struck him, he was also reminded of Tifa’s strict warnings to avoid the place. He glanced around, but eventually gave into his curiosity and walked up to the door, staring at the brass handles and pulling them back, only to watch as they fell off completely.

He screwed up his courage and stepped in through the door, biting back a groan as his head swam and his vision blurred at the edges. He took a couple deep breaths and pulled himself back together, glancing around at his surroundings in a distant curiosity.

Memories clung to the back of his mind, so fresh that he wanted to plunge in and explore, but when he reached for them, they refused to come forth. Cloud sighed through his nose, irritated at the fractured state of his mind and unable to fight off the feeling of wrongness that permeated his entire being with every step he took. He took a quick walk upstairs, noticing nothing all that interesting, and then returned downstairs to head into a room with a door that was cracked open just far enough that he could squeeze through.

“A safe?” he asked, surprised at the sight of it. If he wished for it, he supposed he could just reach through and grab at the piece of paper, but before he could consider it, all his battle senses screamed at him. He turned with Ultima Weapon held out, catching the end of a large clawed hand and jumping back to avoid chomping teeth.

“What the fuck?!” Cloud shouted, swinging his weapon at the creature as he checked its stats. The creature, called Lost Number, wouldn’t be that hard to fight off, but Cloud was nowhere near as good at using his ghostly form yet and he knew it could cost him.

Backing away, he wondered if he could make it out of the mansion before Lost Number could get to him and decided against it when it swung at him again, clawed hand driving straight through the door and tearing it down. He ran into the foyer, trying to hang back when the enemy drove itself into a frenzy and then diving back in when it grew distracted.

Eventually, he managed to wear down the creature’s health, attempting to summon Shiva or Ifrit or even that Choco/Mog thing. Cloud was disappointed to learn that while he could still fight as well as ever, he’d definitely not be able to use any type of materia any more. His ghostly form wouldn’t allow it.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Lost Number swung at him with a clawed hand. Cloud flinched back, but received a wound from forehead to cheek, watching almost curiously as a strange, silvery liquid flowed down and dripped onto the floorboards. He could tell that one more hit was all he needed for his limit break and guarded against the next attack before he swung at Lost Number with his limit, defeating the enemy completely and gaining an Odin material he couldn’t use for his efforts.

“Oh, great, just what I needed,” he mumbled, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his head from the claws that had drove through him. Cloud wondered at that, having believed monsters could no longer hurt him. Were these monsters different? Had Hojo’s experimentation changed them that much?

Pushing aside the thought for later, he made his way out of the mostly-destroyed room, regretfully walking in the opposite direction of the piano and heading downstairs to the basement. He knew that he wouldn’t have much luck there either, but with his head hurting like this, he was stuck in a form that was as real as a human’s and wouldn’t be able to walk through any doors to get out of the place.

He eventually found his way to what looked like a library, thumbing through a few books disinterestedly and then deciding to head back out to explore the basement level a little more. His head felt better after taking a while to rest and he thought that he’d be able to take on any other enemies that he’d need to, having taken a potion that did seem to work even when his materia didn’t.

Cloud fought his way through, but when he came across a two-headed enemy and began to notice his vision blurring at the edges from his still somewhat unhealed injury, he yanked open a nearby door and slammed it closed behind him, pressing his back to it and hearing the way that his breath came out in tired gasps. He felt like he’d been run ragged and he hadn’t even done anything. Where was all of the stamina that he’d had in life?

The monsters eventually grew tired of trying to get in and walked away, the heavy dragging sounds of their footsteps fading away until he couldn’t hear them at all. He pulled back from the door to glance around the room, eyes immediately landing on the huge coffin in the middle of the room.

Curious, he went over and pried it open with some effort, stumbling back when he was met with a sleeping humanoid form, clawed hand resting at his side.

The person within sat up immediately and he caught sight of the man’s cape, ripped in places and fraying at the edges. He had pale skin and long, dark hair that seemed to be as uncared for as the rest of his person. The man asked, “Why… did you wake me?”

“I didn’t actually intend to,” Cloud informed him, moving closer to see if he was actually a ghost as well, but… Nope. Can’t fake that lifelike hue, even if he did look a little on the deathly pale side. With a shrug, he explained, “I was hiding from enemies and I saw your coffin.”

“Is that so?” the man asked, looking pretty irritated even as he spoke smoothly and without any emotion lingering beneath his words. He finally laid his eyes on Cloud and they widened marginally. He said, “You are a… ghost.”

“Yeeees?” Cloud replied, confused. “We’re pretty common. How long have you been sleeping for?”

“Many, many years,” he said simply, tone curt and not inviting him to ask further. Cloud wisely kept his mouth shut, eyes catching on the sharp fangs starting to peek through in the man’s growing agitation. “I intend to sleep again. Do not disturb me.”

“I wouldn’t advise it,” Cloud warned. “I’m pretty sure Oogie Boogie plans to take this place over soon and,” he shuddered, remembering the sight of his true form beneath the fabric that held him together, “you really don’t want to be near him.”

“Oogie…Boogie,” Vincent said slowly, as if he wasn’t quite sure of what was going on and would really like some answers. Cloud felt a pang of sympathy for him, often having felt the same way for a majority of his life. Even in death, there wasn’t much freedom from those nagging thoughts. “I am uncertain, but… where are we, exactly?”

“Halloweentown,” he informed the man, sitting down on the seat of the coffin and having to catch himself before he fell through. He flushed slightly at his fumble, hoping the blue glow to his face wasn’t that obvious.

“I have no idea what that is,” Vincent admitted to him, looking uncomfortable with how removed from society he was. Had it been 30 years or 300? It was impossible to tell, stuck in this giant, sickening house of memories, none of which he was particularly fond of revisiting. He swung his legs out of the coffin and stood, deciding that he wouldn’t stay in the place any longer. “Would you be willing to show me this Halloweentown of yours, ghost?”

“Sure,” Cloud agreed easily, moving to stand as well. “And my name’s Cloud. Do you think you’ll be able to handle the monsters?”

“You can call me Vincent,” Vincent told him, opening the door with his clawed hand and appearing satisfied when they left gouges in the wood. Cloud followed him out of the mansion, carefully avoiding mentioning all the damage that the vampire was doing to the house and its enemies, content to hang back and offer support in battle when he was needed.

 

They stood just outside of the doors now, the mansion at their backs. Vincent looked around him uncertainly, eyes roving across the area hungrily as if a familiar landmark would lessen his confusion and disorientation. He looked like he desperately needed something to ground him, though Cloud doubted the standoffish man standing before him would ever allow anything or anyone to do so. Cloud watched silently as the man’s scowl seemed to worsen and took that as a cue to carry onward.

With that in mind, Cloud lead the way out through the coffins, asking, “Where do you want to go first?”

“It’s no matter to me as long as we are away from that mansion,” Vincent admitted, looking back over his shoulder and feeling an overwhelming relief when he saw nothing but graves. They had walked farther than he had thought and he could no longer see the Shinra Mansion looming behind him. It had not aged well, certainly, but he supposed that Hojo wouldn’t care for proper maintenance of any place that didn’t hold his interest any longer.

Cloud nodded, sheathing his sword once more as he made his way through the graveyard’s gates silently. He no longer felt the pressing need to speak, wordlessly retracing steps he had taken many times before and watching as Vincent took in the town with a furrowed brow and a distinct lack of remembrance.

“Different?”

“Inexplicably,” Vincent agreed, gaze roving over the fountain and then towards the residents. “I don’t have any memories of this place.”

Cloud hummed a note of agreement and Vincent’s gaze turned to him. The vampire seemed to loom with his tall stature. Cloud found that a little unfair, considering the fact that he was floating a little off the ground. When Vincent’s curious gaze refused to leave him, he said, “I’m a ghost, remember? I have some memories, yeah, but others… just disappeared. There’s a lot of gaps.”

Vincent made a noise of acknowledgement, but spoke no further. The silence surrounding them was thick, but not uncomfortable. Cloud wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, just watching the living passing by and not even giving a passing glance to the vampire and ghost that stood back in the shadows of the buildings, just out of view.

Eventually, Cloud bit back a yawn and glanced around their surroundings, unsurprised when they gave no indication of the passage of time. He craned his head to look up at Vincent, the silent vampire still riveted at the sight of people after having been in isolation for so long, and said, “I should probably get back to my coffin.”

“I will accompany you,” he said.

Cloud looked surprised at that and pointed out, a little worriedly, “I’m a ghost. I could’ve meant I was sleeping with my corpse and then you’d have had to just hang out a couple inches away from rotting flesh.”

“You wouldn’t be able to stand the smell,” Vincent told him as he lead the way this time, eventually allowing Cloud to show him to where his coffin was. 

They both fit in it somehow, mostly because Cloud had managed to get his hands on one of the Frankenstein-sized ones that most ghosts found appallingly tacky. Cloud curled up into the side, unsurprised when he heard the vampire shifting around and even more unsurprised at the feeling of a cold hand brushing through his back before it retreated once more.

And so they slept.


End file.
